Most western welfare states have recently faced severe challenges due to economic crises and demographic changes (Pierson, 2001). Innovation has become a popular answer to these challenges to meet rising demands, without... [ view full abstract ]
Most western welfare states have recently faced severe challenges due to economic crises and demographic changes (Pierson, 2001). Innovation has become a popular answer to these challenges to meet rising demands, without compromising service levels (Osborne & Brown, 2013). This creates a pressure on public managers to enhance innovative work behavior among their employees, in order to increase successful implementation of innovations (Scott & Bruce, 1994). However, how managers may do this, is still an open question. Therefore this paper will examine: If public managers can engage their employees in innovative work behavior through either a transactional or a transformational leadership style?
Several studies have examined the relationship between leadership styles and public innovation (De Vries, Bekkers & Tummers 2016:157). Fewer studies have looked at how transactional and transformational leadership may impact on employees’ innovative work behavior (Aryee et. al., 2012; Choi et. al., 2016; Michaelis et. al., 2010). Most of these studies focus exclusively on transformational leadership (Aryee et. al., 2012; Choi et. al., 2016; Michaelis et. al., 2010). Only one study also examines the relationship between transactional leadership and innovative work behavior (Pieterse et. al., 2010). Furthermore recent research has problematized the reliability and validity of the question batteries used to measure transformational leadership (the MLQ measures) (Thy Jensen et. al., 2016). Thy Jensen et al. discuss how the measures of transformational leadership confound the different dimensions of the concept with the concepts’ expected effect (Thy Jensen et. al., 2016). This is an important problem when it comes to the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior, since intellectual stimulation (a sub-dimension of transformational leadership), is highly similar to idea generation (the first stage in innovative work behavior). However, no existing studies have tried to solve this problem. Finally, only two studies analyzing the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior in a public sector context (Pieterse et. al., 2010; Reuvers et. al., 2008), and none of these control for specific public characteristics e.g. a culture of risk avoidance (Bysted & Jespersen 2014; Borins 2001). Thus, we are left with very limited knowledge of the relationships between transactional and transformational leadership styles and innovative work behavior in the public sector.
In this paper we study the relationship between transactional and transformational leadership styles and innovative work behavior in a sample of public leaders (113 leaders, answering rate 89%) and their nested employees (1293 employees, answering rate 51.1 %) in the Children and Youth Department of a medium-sized Danish municipality. To avoid common source bias we use answers from the public leaders to describe their leadership styles and from the employees to measure their innovative work behavior. Furthermore we use the newly developed measures from Thy Jensen et al. 2016 to measure transactional and transformational leadership. Finally, we examine if relevant public management- and innovation related variables such as risk avoidance culture, innovation trust, and autonomy moderate the association between leadership styles and innovative work behavior among the public employees.
